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Aviation History
1983
1983 - 0391.PDF
SPACEFLIGHT Challenger tugs at its bonds WASHINGTON DC Nasa's sixth Space Shuttle mission should lift-off late this month, according to General Abrahamson. STS 6 is the first mission to employ Challenger, and has been delayed by several minor engine problems. The launch schedule currently envisaged by Nasa (see table below) is a tight one. There are now about two months between each flight, compared with a three-month interval in May last year. Of crucial importance to Europe is the fact that Nasa believes that it can fly Space- lab 1 in September, as planned, and precede it with a two-TDRSS network. ESA will be happiest if this plan can be met. There is concern about the consequences of further delays, however, and ESA has communicated to Nasa its preferences for this event. ESA has three main constraints on Spacelab 1—the need to have two TDRSSs for full data-return, loss of science information if launch is in November or December, and the cost of a several-month delay. ESA's second preference is thus for a Spacelab 1 flight at the end of October, with two active TDRSSs. If this is unattainable, ESA would opt to fly in late September or October, with just one TDRSS. ESA's last choice would be to fly at the end of February next year with two TDRSSs in orbit. STS •6 7 8 9 M! : Note >. Ab uses . •::•;•: March 19-20 tgtsMsv ^;:>l||giip'f;J["j:^ September 30 r*!t>>$f.*r*of 3 TDRSS A : Telesat E + i»3fapa'B.t-i- Sf!3S 1 » TBBSS8 ' bra- .6 SpacabL 1 DoD34-l Columbia Japan's CS2a communications satellite was successfully launched from Tanegashima on February 4, by an N launcher. The satellite is already at its planned geostation ary longitude of 132°E, and has been christened Sakura 2a. It will be used operationally by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, Police, Railways, and firefighters Exosat climbs aboard Delta OTTOBRUNN Europe's X-ray observer, Exosat, is to be launched by a Thor-Delta on May 26 instead of Ariane. ESA's industrial policy committee made the decision last week, to give Exosat a better chance of getting airborne in the next launch window—late May to late August. European scientists lobbied for the change of launcher because they feared that further delay would degrade Exosat's sensitive instru ments, and stretch their budgets. In addition, ESA was faced with paying for design teams to be kept together until the next launch window (November to January). A further benefit is the simpler launch sequence offered by a Thor-Delta lift off from Vandenberg AFB, California. Thor-Delta uses three stages to do the job, and the "parking" orbit only lasts about half an hour. By comparison, Ariane needs a Diamant-derived fourth stage, and its parking orbit stretches to about three hours. Europe was lucky to get a Delta launch from Nasa at such short notice. That it did so was largely because a Delta payload was delayed. Flight understands that the swap to Thor-Delta will be without financial penalty, and that Exosat remains within ESA's budgetary margin. Exosat has been stored at Estec in the Netherlands since October last year, when it was ready to fly. It was reactivated for tests in January, and is now back in store. Prime contractor MBB plans to "wake" Exosat again this week, and to conduct a complete integrated systems test. The satellite is due to be flown direct to Vandenberg in early April, in a chartered Boeing 747. Ariane plans crystallise PARIS Ariane is to fly again on June 3, carrying the first European Communications Satellite (ECS 1) and an amateur radio craft. It will be the sixth flight of Europe's launcher, and the first since its failure in September last year. The next three launches will each carry an Intelsat V (see table below). According to the European Space Agency there will be three Ariane launches this year plus prepa ration work for the fourth flight. The Ariane 1 that would have flown Exosat has been set aside to launch Europe's comet probe, Giotto, in July 1985. • Piif lit 1.6 L7 L8 L9 L10 es Launch •1S83. : 3 August 25 Notfsmbgf <S ;«sry - 1'ilslsai V-8 ? • Wo*» 1 10 is thp first Eight '\f Anon* 3 Iras gets down to work CHILTON First results from Iras, the Infrared astronomical satellite, are "excellent" say scientists at the UK control centre. The satellite achieved a near perfect orbit after its January 25 launch, and began to eye the universe on Febru ary 9. As soon as the cover protec ting the telescope was removed, Iras proved its worth by identifying more than 4,000 infrared sources in its first day of operation—comparable with the total number previously discovered. Among these were 20 "new" galaxies. Iras's primary mission is to provide a complete infrared map of the universe. It is expected to locate thousands of hitherto unseen objects, some of which will be further away than anything yet discovered. An unexpectedly low boil- off rate of liquid helium has won scientists another 100 days of working time, bringing operational life to 300 days Flight, February 19, page 461). The catalogue of the infrared universe, detailing objects a million times fainter than any yet seen with conventional telescopes, will be ready in about 18 months. The results should lead to a much better understanding about the birth and death of stars, and about the material which fills space. Iras is a trinational venture shared among the USA, which built and launched the tele scope, the Netherlands, which provided the platform, and the UK, responsible for track ing and preliminary data anal ysis. Spaceshots Nasa Dryden is to test larger parachutes for Space Shut tle's Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs), in drop tests from a B-52. The new parachute is designed to reduce SRB impact-damage and is 41 • 5m in diameter (existing canopies are 35m in diameter). FLIGHT International, 5 March 1983 585
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